The Alcatel Idol 5 for Cricket has an attractive design, solid specs, and pairs with an optional companion headset to deliver an affordable VR experience.

Virtual reality doesn't need to cost a fortune. Just pop the new $199.99 Alcatel Idol 5 phone for Cricket Wireless into a companion UNI360 headset and you're good to go. That's not the Idol 5's only selling point. You also get an attractive metal design, a rich set of features, and solid specs for the price. If big phablets like the ZTE Blade X Max aren't your style, the Alcatel Idol 5 provides a sleek and stylish alternative.

Design, Features, and Display

The Alcatel Idol 5 doesn't take a significant departure from the design of the Idol 5S, but trades the glass on the back for a metal unibody. It measures 5.8 by 2.8 by 0.3 inches (HWD) and weighs a modest 5.2 ounces, making it far more pocketable than phablets like the aforementioned Blade X Max (6.4 by 3.3 by 0.4 inches, 6.9 ounces).

There's a power button on the left, a USB-C charging port and a 3.5mm audio jack on the bottom, and a volume rocker and programmable key that can quickly launch apps on the right. A microSD slot on the top supports cards up to 256GB and worked fine with the one we tried. The one thing missing is a fingerprint sensor, which is an unfortunate omission as you'll find it on most entry-level phones now, including the ultra-affordable Motorola Moto E4.

A bright 5.2-inch, 1,920-by-1,080 IPS screen dominates the front of the phone. Pixel density works out to a crisp 424 pixels per inch (ppi), matching the Moto G5 Plus. It's sharp for the size, and you won't notice as much pixelation as the larger Blade X Max (367ppi), though they both share the same resolution. Colors are rich and saturated, and viewing angles are very good. Outdoors the screen remains visible under direct sunlight. Like previous Alcatel phones it's reversible, quickly changing the UI around if you use it upside down. Above and below the screen are a pair of front-facing stereo speakers that give you impressively loud audio, though you'll experience some distortion at maximum volume.

Network Performance and Connectivity

The phone is locked to Cricket (which uses AT&T's network) and supports GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz), UMTS (850/1700/1900/2100MHz), and LTE bands (1/2/4/5/7/12/30). It should give you slightly better performance than the X Max, which doesn't have band 30. During network testing in heavily congested midtown Manhattan, we saw top speeds of 10.5Mbps down and 7.5Mbps up, which is in line with other AT&T/Cricket phones we've tested in the area.

Wi-Fi is more robust than you normally get in this price range, with support on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. There's also NFC, but without a fingerprint sensor, you can't (easily) use Android Pay.

Call quality is solid. Transmissions are clear, albeit a bit robotic. Noise cancellation does a decent job of blotting out background noise, though you still get the occasional murmur of conversation or blaring car horn. Earpiece and speakerphone volume are both loud.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

Under the hood, the phone is powered by a MediaTek Helio P20 processor clocked at 2.35GHz. In the AnTuTu benchmark (a measure of overall system performance), it scored 61,645. That's a nice bump up from the Blade X Max (44,292), and just barely less than the Snapdragon 625-powered G5 Plus (63,845).

The phone has 2GB of RAM, making it smooth and responsive in general operation. It handled multitasking without any noticeable hiccups, though it stuttered when it came to some VR apps (more on this in the next section). The Idol 5 was able to run demanding games like GTA: San Andreas, but I did experience some slowdown and dropped frames.

Battery life is average at best. The phone clocked 4 hours, 30 minutes in our rundown test, in which we stream full-screen video over LTE at maximum screen brightness. That's almost an hour less than the Blade X Max (5 hours, 17 minutes), which has a larger display, and nearly three hours short of the similarly sized Moto G5 Plus (7 hours, 35 minutes). Fortunately, MediaTek's proprietary charging standard, Pump Express 2.0, should let you reach a full charge quickly.

Camera performance is decent, though nothing to get excited about. The 12-megapixel rear sensor takes generally clear shots in well-lit settings without much loss of detail. But indoors and in lower lighting, it can get slow and noisy. It often takes several seconds to focus after the camera app launches, and in cases of poor lighting, you often get blurry shots.

That said, it supports HDR mode to punch up colors, along with manual controls to give you the ability to tweak shots to improve performance in challenging circumstances. Video recording is mostly stable at 30fps, though frames can drop in lower light. There's also a profusion of camera modes to allow for features like slow-motion recording and 360-degree video. An 8-megapixel front-facing camera takes clear selfies.

VR Experience

The UNI360 is a VR headset sold separately from the Idol 5 for a fairly affordable $50. It's pretty similar to other mobile headsets like the Samsung Gear VR. It has a pair of lenses encased in a plastic body, with a plush cushioning for your face and a flexible velcro strap to keep it in place. There are adjustable phone clips, allowing it to work with a variety of phones between 5 and 6 inches, including iPhones. There two physical buttons on the top—Select on the right and Back on the left. A focus wheel sits in the middle. I found that it accommodated my glasses comfortably.

Pairing the Idol 5 with the UNI360 automatically launches VR Home, a preloaded VR interface where you can watch 360-degree video and play games. Content is provided in a partnership with Littlstar, but you can also run any VR apps available from Google Play. It uses an Oculus Rift-style interface, with panels that give you access to games and demos from the preloaded VR Store.

Performance is mixed. Some games played fine, but others proved too demanding, taxing the phone to the point that it became sluggish when moving around. The 1080p screen is also noticeably pixelated. You really want the highest-resolution possible when it's right up in your face.

However, what makes the UNI360 unique from other mobile headsets is that it supports elements of mixed reality. There's a pass-through camera feature when you use it with the Idol 5 that allows you to keep it strapped to your head, and use the phone's rear camera to find your way around. I managed to use it to navigate parts of my office—though again I experienced some latency, so I wouldn't try to use it in a cluttered area.

Other features include the ability to accept phone calls and read text messages when you're in the VR environment, giving you a way to stay connected to the real world even when you're in a virtual one. It's a solid accessory for the price, especially considering it can be powered by a $200 phone.

Software

The Idol 5 runs Android 7.0 Nougat with a UI that appears to be pretty close to stock. There are some minor visual changes to apps and the Settings menu, but for the most part, everything should look familiar. If you want to make a drastic change to the phone's theme, you can use the preloaded Color Catcher app, which uses the colors of your surroundings (through the camera) to create a unique, customized design. It changes most visual aspects of the device, from the home screen to app icons.

Because this is a Cricket phone, you'll find the usual set of Cricket apps preloaded, along with the VR and Littelstar apps. Aside from those, there's also Amazon, a handful of games, Deezer, Facebook, NextRadio, vTime, and WPS Office. This leaves you with 19.03GB of storage available out of 32GB. That's a little on the low side, so if you plan to download lots of apps or take many photos, you probably want to pop in a microSD card.

Conclusions

At $199.99, the Alcatel Idol 5 has a lot going for it, with its slim design, solid hardware, and VR support. If you're looking for a sleek, feature-packed phone in a reasonably sized package, it's a great option. But in terms of sheer value, the $129.99 ZTE Blade X Max offers similar features (and even adds a fingerprint sensor) for nearly half the price, so it remains our Editors' Choice.

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About the Author

Ajay Kumar is PCMag's Analyst obsessed with all things mobile. Ajay reviews phones, tablets, accessories, and just about any other gadget that can be carried around with you. In his spare time he games on the rig he built himself, collects Nintendo amiibos, and tries his hand at publishing a novel. Follow Ajay on Twitter @Ajay_H_Kumar.

Alcatel Idol 5

Alcatel Idol 5

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